Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Fair food for all Australians

5 points to Fair Food Week

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Story by Russ Grayson, 2 October 2014

IT'S only a couple of weeks to Fair Food Week 2014 so I thought I would say something about why and how the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) started it.

I'll do that through a 5-point planning process. That's a way of planning an activity limited in time… it is tactical rather than strategic… it's a way of thinking through what you want to do, why and how you would do it. It's an approach we can use in a broad range of applications. Here we go…

FAIR FOOD WEEK — 5 points

5

1. INTELLIGENCE — what we know

This is what we know…

The quite revolution

For the good part of a decade or so there has been an increase in the number of small food systems and food initiatives that have been appearing in Australia. By food systems, I mean organisations and initiatives designed to give their participants some level of control over the food they buy and feed to family and friends. That's how they differ from conventional retail.

These structure themselves adopt community-based, social enterprise and small business models of operation. Others are products of the voluntary community sector and these are local and informal and sometimes lack a legal structure such as the incorporated association that is commonly adopted.

This growth has — for the most part — been going on outside the event horizon of government (largely a good thing) and old media (newspapers, radio, TV and the news gathering agencies) to which it remains largely invisible.

Looked at in terms of old economics, the new food systems are supplying the demand that continued patronage of these new food enterprises proves exists. Any market economy worth its weight in authenticity would welcome this new addition, this latest iteration of market economics.

Fair and edible

It soon became apparent that fairness was a theme linking the various initiatives in this emerging food system.

The fairness its participants sought was fairness to small-to-medium farmers in the prices they get and in the market opportunities open to them, fairness to food buyers in that they receive good quality and affordable food for their dollar, and fairness to the organisations and individuals doing innovative stuff in food distribution so that they wouldn't be rolled over by BIG FOOD, the supermarket duopoly and other vested interests in the mainstream food system and their regulatory and governmental fellow travellers.

This led to this loose, diverse collection of producers, processors, distributors and eaters becoming known as the 'fair food' movement.

Geographically distributed

Fair food systems are geographically distributed. They are found in towns and cities across the country. They are hard to see because they are small and local.

Local is good, but physical isolation can lead to a state of mental isolation, of going it alone without the benefit of experience of others of the kind, without an effective means of sharing experience and mutual assistance. That's where the Alliance comes in saying to these new food enterprises and initiatives "Hey! You're not alone… there's others of your kind at large in the world… join us so we can bring all of our kind together for the good of all… join us in Fair Food Week so we can find each other and say… wow! you really are doing something clever when it comes to fair food'.

Reinventing regional economies

The food systems and what I describe as 'food events' — festivals, fairs, farmers' markets and the like — are frequently focused on what I call 'food regionalism', which some call 'local food'.

I use the term I mention because, in discussion and at presentations, I like to make the link between local food initiatives and systems and how they can become the focus of creating or reinforcing regional food economies, the economic links around food growing, processing, preparing and selling that sustain an industry built around a geographic region's climate, soils, agricultural production and culture.

Grow a regional food economy sufficiently and you create the opportunity and employment that keeps money circulating within a region for a longer time before it leaves to buy goods and services not available within the region. In other words, through exchange, the money does more work before it says goodbye and thanks for spending me.

In highlighting food enterprises and ideas, Fair Food Week contributes to creating better regional food economies.

Loose, scattered and no deliberate direction forward

The food systems, initiatives and the informal organisations that make up this diverse but innovative fair food system are not only geographically scattered, they are uncoordinated and often unlinked. Unless we have a networked localism, local stays local and brings little benefit beyond its geographic area.

With no organisation to represent them and advocate for them, small food systems are subject to the fluctuations and vagaries of the market and of government policy.

That is why the AFSA was set up in late 2010 and that is why it created Fair Food Week to confirm that those making this new, fair food system are not alone, that they are part of an economic and social organism with purpose, intent and direction.

2. Clear intent

In setting up the Alliance, the clear intent was to create a voice for Australia's new food revolution… for its small food businesses, community food systems like the food co-ops, organic food buying groups and community supported agriculture enterprises; for the small-to-medium scale farmers producing for our domestic market; for urban food growers and home food gardeners and for food processors who take the raw product and make it into something desirable and tasty.

The clear intent for the Alliance is to advocate to government and other decision makers on behalf of this new sector in our food system. It is the Alliance's intent to feed back a sense of commonality… a sense that individual enterprises are part of an emerging food system providing products and services to the public whose continued patronage shows are in demand.

It is the clear intent of Fair Food Week to celebrate this new fair food sector and in doing so to shout out: 'Here we are. Something good is happening here. Join us!'.

3. Appropriate means

For the Alliance, the question was this: what would be a way to advocate for this new, emerging food sector other than seeking to sustain its growth through lobbying government and producing submissions to enquiries?

The answer it found was to create a presence for the new food sector by pointing out its arrival. Fair Food Week was born and took its first breath, successfully, in 2013. Now, in October 2014, it takes its first step.

4. A clear plan of action

The plan of action was this: figure out how Fair Food Week would work, identify a date for the event, promote it and encourage fair food organisations around the country to participate. Then hold the event in its multiple locations fair Food Week is a way of networking local food initiatives, small food business and social enterprise — it is networked localism.

The Week is of the self-organising variety — organisations plan their own event or rebadge an already-planned event as a Fair Food Week activity. The Alliance supplies the website on which regional organisations list their event and supply supporting services via social media and graphics for print and online use that the participating organisation can make use of.

5. Withdrawal strategy

This takes two forms:

  1. Each year, the Alliance sets aside Fair Food Week after it has been run and evaluated, only to retrieve it for the following year's event and update it.
  2. Fair Food Week rests on an action-foundation of self-organisation. Each year, the Alliance sets up Fair Food Week and its supporting online infrastructure, invites organisations around the country to participate, then withdraws to let them take the initiative.

Antidote

In establishing Fair Food Week, the AFSA seeks to offer an antidote to a mainstream food system in which we, the buyers and eaters, are relegated to that crass, largely disempowered role of 'consumer'… mere food buyers marketed at by a dodgy advertising and marketing industry that hangs like some kind of commensal organism off the food industry.

'Consumer' is an economists' word and economists, marketers and their ilk would say that the role does have power, an economic power based on people's freedom of choice of what they buy. There is truth in this though our freedom is exercised only within what the supermarkets and mainstream food system decide to produce and offer for sale.

But there's something that the economists and marketers don't mention, a capacity built into the base structure of market economics. It is this: our freedom of choice can be weaponised and turned into a tool to discourage or encourage companies in producing certain goods and to reward them, or otherwise, for their corporate behaviour. Let's not forget that.

And there's another use for our freedom of choice when it comes to the food we buy. We can use it to support either BIG FOOD with its marketing hangers-on and quasi-monopolisation of Australia's food supply, or to encourage, through voting with our dollars, those fresh, new enterprises now propagating in the fertile gardens of the fair food system.

Doing that is why we celebrate those small food system innovators during Fair Food Week — the farmers, urban growers, small food processing and distribution businesses, the social enterprises using business models to achieve social goals. Come along and see for yourself — you'll find the events listed at: fairfoodweek.org.au

See you there.

Fair Food Week — a few stories

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Story by Russ Grayson, 2 October 2014

As I sit here in Randwick writing this, I look through the now-more-than 60 event listings for Fair Food Week 2014 on the Fair Food Week website. Then it dawns on me — what I am seeing is the visible manifestation of what surely must be a social movement around fair food throughout Australia.

Seen this way, is this what US economist and author, Paul Hawken, meant when he described community-based enterprises and initiatives like Fair Food Week as society's "immune response" to "political disease" and "economic malaise"? Is it some kind of social push-back against an impersonal food system in which good nutrition is often put low down the corporate and governmental priotity list? Are all those community and social enterprise initiatives, those small business enterprises built around good food, fairly accessed, push-back against the impersonal experience of the industrial shopping experience you get in the big warehouses of our supermarkets?

[pull_quote align="right"]This brings us to Fair Food Week 2014 — the second coming of what is a new event across our continent, our nation.[/pull_quote]

Earlier this morning I was speaking with Liz Millen from the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance. Liz is a health educator who well knows the effect of poor nutrition and she has been advocating for a fairer food system for some years. That discussion made clear to me that for a surprising number of Australians have difficulty providing for their families when it comes to food. I think that, were a conscious effort to be made to develop this incipient social movement around food further, then those concerns of Liz and her colleagues must form a central part of it.

I remember now that the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, the national organisation behind Fair Food Week, included fair access to food in its Peoples' Food Plan. The Plan was developed as a constructive response to the previous federal governments National Food Plan which the present mob dumped. That doesn't invalidate the Plan, however, and I think its best use now is as a manifesto for fair food in Australia — a manifesto for the sort of fair food spocial movement I mention above.

This brings us to Fair Food Week 2014 — the second coming of what is a new event across our continent, our nation. For me, it's a statement that our food future isn't just for corporations and governments to make decisions on, though they clearly have a role. Our food future belongs to us — the citizens of this country.

Let's take it back.

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Liz Millen, Sydney Food Fairness Alliance

Liz Millen is an energetic and organised woman, a health educator with years of experience to back up what she says about access to food. And what she says comes across succinctly and firmly.

Liz was a founding member of the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance, the city's first and most prominent fair food advocate that made its start in 2006. In 2009 the Alliance held the NSW Food Summit with visiting food advocate, Jeanette Longfield MBE, then coordinator of the UK’s national food education and advocacy organisation, Sustain. The event culminated with the handing over of the Declaration on Food to the NSW Parliament.

Liz's key message is that Australians — a surprising number of them — have difficulty putting food for their families on the table. That's tied up with inadequate incomes, unreliable or a lack of employment opportunities, personal and community health, residential address, the actions or otherwise of government and much more you will discover at the conference the Alliance has organised this October Faor Food Week — the appropriately named Putting Food On The Table.

Liz takes up the story…

"We created Putting Food On The Table — our event during Fair Food Week — because over five percent of Australians… five percent… think about that figure… that's over one million people… experience difficulty feeding their families. And in some places it's even more.

"This is Australia's hidden hunger and it has implications. As Abraham Maslow pointed out decades ago, food — along with shelter, clean water, adequate clothing, personal health and personal security — are the basics of life. Without them, it is exceedingly difficult if not impossible to engage in any kind of personal development or improve the lot of your family. This is why the food security of families is so important… and it's not just about individuals… it's about Australia's future.

Our event — timely and important

[quote author="" image="http://afsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/right-to-food.png" w="265" h="150”]"Putting Food On The Table is a production of the new Right To Food Coalition, a cooperation of organisations like Red Cross, South Western Sydney Local Health District, Liverpool City Council, Macarthur Future Food Forum, Harvest Hub, Second Bite, Foodbank and others — and Sydney Food Fairness Alliance, of course.

"The Coalition‚ those organisations and the people in them work with those in disadvantaged areas on the serious issue of securing a good food supply… securing year-round access to a supply of good food sufficient to support an active life, that is.

"Fair access to good food is an overlooked issue in this country and the Right To Food Coalition is an advocate that is putting the issue on the political agenda.

"And this is what Putting Food On The Table will do as it brings people together for mutual learning and to map out future joint action. When all Australians have a reliable food supply whatever their income and wherever they live, then we will have a fair food system.

"That, then, is what we're working towards and that is what Putting Food On The Table is about.

"It's our good fortune that the event falls at the same time as Anti-Poverty Week, World Food Day and Fair Food Week. Join us there."

[button_link url="http://righttofood.org.au" target=“blank" style="" title="" class="" id="" onclick=“”]Visit their website — Putting Food On the Table [/button_link]

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Justin Walsh, Trentham Food Hub

[quote author="" image="http://afsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/trentham.png" w="265" h="157”]"The Trentham Food Hub is an emerging community enterprise set up to support a thriving local food economy by working with producers to address the gaps in their resources.

"It's the vehicle we’ve created to drive this change in our community", says Justin Walsh, Coordinator of the Hub.

"We know that global supply chains aren’t based on the interests of small Victorian communities. We know that our farmers can get a better return for their hard yakka and we know that good, clean, fair food can also be affordable.

"We think a healthy food system should underpin rural communities and we think local ownership of the food system is imperative to the long term prosperity of these communities." [/quote]

A local initiative

"I started the Growers, Cookers & Eaters dinner with the local sustainability group because there was limited opportunity for consumers to meet producers in a social setting that isn't a buyer-seller interaction.

"The dinner is a platform to bring together people from different parts of the supply chain and begin new conversations with good food at the centre. We held our first Growers, Cookers & Eaters dinner in 2012 and decided to hold it again as part of the inaugural Fair Food Week to put these local conversations into a national context.

"We've also found that hosting the dinner is a good way to promote our projects with local farmers and all kinds of skilled people have come out of the woodwork to get involved.

"Events like this are important so more people can build an understanding of what's grown in their region and how food spending choices can positively impact their community and quality of life. Putting names and faces to the grocery list makes it easier for food buyers to make informed choices about what goes in their basket.

The importance of Hubs

"Food hubs are organisations that connect growers with cookers and eaters to promote buying and selling locally. They are community infrastructure supporting regional and creative food economies. Their primary focus is food access and logistics.

"Hubs differ from other types of retailer because they typically integrate the following key activities at the core of the business: working with producers to access new markets; working with customers to access fresh produce; focusing on connecting local producers and customers; streamlining distribution from multiple producers; promoting sustainable farming practices; supporting equitable access to healthy food and working closely with the local community.

Fair Food set to explode in Melbourne

"Interest in the concept of Fair Food has exploded in Melbourne over the past two years and this has permeated through to regional Victoria.

"I think the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance's People's Food Plan galvanised the community around this idea and successive large scale forums have really got people fired up. It's very energising to be part of such an engaged community of high achievers, both in Melbourne and in regional Victoria.

"VIVA LA FAIR FOOD!".

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[button_link url="http://fairfoodweek.org.au/event/trentham-growers-cookers-eaters-2014/" target="blank" style="" title="" class="" id="" onclick=“”]Visit Trentham Growers, Cookers & Eaters 2014 [/button_link]

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Regional Development Australia (RDA), Southern Inland

[quote author="" image="http://afsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/rda2.png" w="265" h="158"]No slouchers, these regional development folk. They hosted their inaugural Australian Capital Region Food Hub Event in June this year.

A success, the event attracted more than 100.

"Not long afterwards", writes Richard, Nick Rose visited Canberra and we discussed the formation of a Canberra Region Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) chapter.

"The Southern NSW Harvest Association is the region’s umbrella organisation and, following Nick’s visit, Southern Harvest joined AFSA as a first step towards this goal. We then scheduled our next Food Hub event to coincide with Fair Food Week.

The regional role of food

"RDA Southern Inland produced a Regional Plan in which we identified six regional priorities. Each of these contributes significantly to regional development.

"Regional food is particularly important as it contributes to economic and community development on so many levels — from fundamentals like food security, biodiversity, health and wellbeing to the sustainability of regional populations and the development of vibrant visitor economies.

"Research indicates that local business makes a significantly greater contribution to an economy than franchised, corporatised or multinational operations.

Potential to expand

"We received significant feedback from our initial Food Hub event and identified Southern Harvest as the vehicle to address a number of issues raised. These including the sharing of information, the creation of a regional brand, the need for education and business development support for operators.

"We have re-engineered Southern Harvest to deliver these benefits to members and are in the process of re-launching the association.

"One key initiative currently under development is the creation of a Southern Harvest Regional Producer’s Market at Bungendore. We are also keen to develop or adopt an online trading portal for both B2B and B2C transactions.

The food hub — a better type of retail

"We are keen to replace the current producer > central market > wholesaler > retailer > buyer supply chain model with more direct, local distribution channels.

"We have identified the Australian Capital Region as our local bioregion and it has the capacity to fill a shopping basket with a broad range of healthy, fresh and local produce. We are working to identify producers and supplies within the region and share this info with consumers — in doing so becoming a ‘hub’ of information.

"This first Food Hub event was initiated by an informal grouping of associations known as the Local Food Initiative. (Details of participating groups can be found on the Australian Capital Region Food Hub Event web page) and led by the amazing Penny Kothe (Caroola Farm, Permaculture eXchange).

"The event was sponsored by RDA Southern Inland that also support Southern Harvest."

AFSA

Asked for feedback on what the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance is doing, Richard responded:

"Love your work.

"Having worked in the regional food sphere for many years, we can appreciate the quality and integrity of your People’s Food Plan and have adopted it as a ‘foundation document’

"We are keen to see the development of a Canberra Region AFSA Chapter and wish fellow members all the best with their Fair Food Week activities."

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[button_link url="http://fairfoodweek.org.au/event/australian-capital-region-food-hub-event-2/" target="blank" style="" title="" class="" id="" onclick=""]Visit Australian Capital Regional Food Hub Event #2 [/button_link]

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Skilling Up For Our Food Future, Randwick, NSW

In Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, Randwick City Council have run a popular Organic Gardening course for many years and have also offered a Permaculture Orchard course the past two years. People also turn up at the Permabee garden volunteer days to help maintain the Permaculture Interpretive Garden at Randwick Community Centre. Led by Eastern Suburbs gardening educator, Emma Daniell, it's become something of a family event.

A successful first-ever Fair Food Week

The clear community interest in food is also why they held their first Fair Food Week event last year. That was so popular that they decided to offer it again this October.

They plan to follow last years' successful formula of workshops and children's activities in the afternoon, followed by a participatory cook-up and shared meal, followed by — this time — a couple short videos on food and a discussion about them. Fortunately, one of the part-time educators, Leesa Burton, is a chef as well as a primary educator, so the food people will jointly prepare comes out tasty. The kids really get into food preparation.

Doing all of this aligns with council's city plan and with their community development ethos — it's about building what they call the 'capacity' of the community so Sydney's Eastern Suburbs can become a more resilient place to live, able to bounce back after some impact on it.

A local fair food movement

The interest in food and food issues at the Randwick Sustainability Hub reflects a wider interest in food that you find throughout the Eastern Suburbs. That’s a deeper interest in food, in where it comes from, how we get it and how good it is.

Then there's the question of fair access to good food for people who are less affluent, who suffer illness, who are unemployed, on pensions and who have limited income to buy what they eat. The Eastern suburbs is a socially diverse region spanning great affluence to deep poverty, and while the former are not challenged in putting food on the table, the latter can be.

This interest in food you see in the small business, social enterprise and community-based food access services that are spread mainly through the northern part of Randwick and into Waverley and Woollahra, the three Eastern Suburbs council areas. There's Rhubarb Food Cooperative and Thoughtful Foods Cooperative, that one on the UNSW Randwick campus — they're both in Randwick — Bondi Food Collective, Randwick Organic Buyers Group, a couple venues for food markets and the community supported agriculture enterprise, Ooooby, operating in the area as well as further afield.

The role of Fair Food Week in Randwick is to support these food initiatives and link what they are doing to the big picture of food security, food access and food sovereignty — which is about citizen control over their food supply — around Australia. It's a way of linking with World Food Day that commemorates the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945 and the work the Organisation does in food security today.

Mostly, Fair Food Week in Randwick is to highlight what locals can do to build a resilient and fair food system in Australia.

Program

2:30-5:00pm — kids activities and community displays and stalls

  • Fair food fun for kids with Leesa Burton
  • Clay modelling the garden with community artist Karen Weiss
  • Community stalls — Permaculture East, Transition Randwick, Sustainimum

3:00-3:45pm – 3 workshops

  • Beyond the Trolley — Jennifer Richards
  • Urban Bees — Doug Purdie
  • Edible foraging tour — Emma Daniell

4:00-4:45pm – 3 workshops

  • Mapping our local food — a facilitated discussion with Russ Grayson
  • Fermenting & preserving — Transition Randwick’s Sustainimum
  • High yielding vegies for small spaces — Emma Daniell

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[button_link url="http://fairfoodweek.org.au/event/skilling-up-for-our-food-future/" target="blank" style="" title="" class="" id="" onclick=""]Visit Skilling up for our Food Future [/button_link]

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The insect approach to planning

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Story by Russ Grayson, September 2014

Advocacy and insects… strange fellow-travellers, for sure, but they really are related.

It's not any old insect I'm referring to, it's a special insect — the dragonfly. Why this? Because the dragonfly is configured to be highly manoeuvrable... it's omnidirectional… four independent, wispy wings allow it to move in any direction. They act independently but in concert. In other words, this small flying habitue of the streams and swamps is adaptable. And that's exactly what we need in making a national fair food advocacy.

Fair Food Week

I've just finished flicking through the growing list of events planned around the country for Fair Food Week, and in doing that, that insect came to mind.

Dragonfly

I'm not surprised that it did because the dragonfly is the avatar for the process of creating a social movement. That's not my idea. It comes from a book called The Dragonfly Effect by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith and I've adopted it because it conceptualises the main phases of setting up a social movement in a simple and sequential manner. It's simple, is devoid of convoluted theories and is applicable.

As I read through that list of Fair Food Week events I realised that all four of the phases represented by the insect are happening simultaneously around the country... different locales are at different stages in the continuum… they're flying on different wings.

First, though, the four phases of the butterfly effect. Each sequential phase corresponds to a wing of the insect... independent but connected for cooperation in manoeuvering. Here they are:

  • focus — having a single, clear focus for your movement
  • grab attention — let people know that you are here and what value your movement might be to them, their own values and organisations
  • engage — make contact and find ways to work with the people whose attention you have grabbed; you might need to let go your ownership of the movement to some extent so as to accommodate other ideas and methods
  • take action — what could you do together to move towards those things you want to see?

Wing 1: Focus

Let's think about focus.

The range of Fair Food Week activities indicates that there already appears to be a loose agreement as to the focus of the fair food movement… it is built around definitions of 'fair':
food that is fair to farmers, food processors and eaters
farmer-fair food implies that the farmer receives a price for the food that makes possible a viable livelihood
fairness for food processors — the industry that processes food not destined for immediate consumption… fresh, but for bottling, drying or canning; Australia has had an industry around this but closures in recent times put it at risk, something that can often be put down to corporate owners offshoring their processing and importing processed foods from countries that have lower costs and lower food standards
fairness to the people who buy and eat the food implies that the food must be of good nutritional quality, must be affordable and accessible.

Wing 2: Attract attention

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance started attracting attention when it was set up at the end of 2010, when it produced a letter to the federal agriculture minster about including small-to-medium farmers as well as the small food enterprise and community food sectors in its proposed national food plan (an idea trashed by the present mob in government).

We knew we were starting to attract attention when the anticipated dozen or so organisatons we thought would co-sign the letter to the minister suddenly swelled to more than 110.

Later, the development of the Peoples' Food Plan, intended to reform the anticipated but stillborn National Food Plan and provide an alternative to it, attracted attention as ideas were crowdsourced across the continent.

That leads us to 2013 and the first Fair Food Week. That was a success and we thought we could build on it, thus the Fair Food Week planned for October 2014.

Wing 3: Engage

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance is engaging with farmers, food buyers, urban growers, universities and other advocates to the extent that is possible with a voluntary organisation.

There's room for improvement but doing that depends on member's time and energy being available. That's why the Alliance publishes a regular enews to subscribers and maintains a website and Facebook.

At the regional scale, food initiatives are engaging with people in the region, whether that's commercial community-supported-agriculture enterprises (CSA) like CERES Fair Food, Brisbane Food Connect or Sydney's Ooooby, or whether its social enterprises like Bondi Food Collective or the food co-ops that have populated our cities since the 1970s.

Then there are the community-based initiatives that engage with their memberships and audiences.

Wing 4: Take action

The Alliance is already taking action to advocate for fair food systems, supplementing at the national scale what regional organisations like Sydney Food Fairness Alliance are doing at the regional scale.

Other means of taking action are those enterprises I mention above, the small food businesses and social enterprises serving Australian produce where available… the community food systems we find in our towns and cities, the community food gardens, the chefs doing interesting things with Australian foods, the small food distribution services like CSAs, food co-ops, organic buyers groups and the like. They're taking direct action in creating the things that people want. The Alliance's focus on advocacy nicely supplements that by working towards a legislative framework that would make it easier for those enterprises and ideas to set root and propagate.

These four wings of the fair food dragonfly are happening at the same time though different locales are at different stages of the Butterfly Effect continuum. Melbourne seems the most advanced in popularising fair food systems and in the range of smaller enterprises and community initiatives engaging with the idea, and far exceeds poor old Sydney in this.

Let’s build a stronger movement

How can we build these different and geographically distributed initiatives into a more cohesive social movement?

I have no answers, just a few rough ideas. I would like to hear your answers and ideas too (add them to the Comments window at the end of this article).

One is that we need local initiatives because they are connected to their constituents in their own, but limited, areas. This is good, but a national fair food movement requires a national presence so we somehow need to develop a connected localism when it comes to local food initiatives like the food co-ops, community gardens and all the other varied citizen initiatives. To do this is to scale-up.

The constraints on developing fair food systems are national, even international in scope and we need something of similar scale to help the organisations that are responsible for imposing those constraints, whether they are deliberate or are the collateral damage of some other initiative of theirs. A national fair food movement needs the capacity to modify their behaviour when it is injurious to good food futures and to the national interest of our continued supply of quality foods and the wellbeing of our people.

Another idea, this one about focusing what we do with our local or regional food systems, whether business, social enterprise or voluntary community initiatives. It's about coming together. The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance already brings people together, mostly through its social media, the media with the greatest reach.

Online media is a great enabler of cooperation and it is made even more effective, as is the movement, when it is supplemented by people meeting in the 3D world. A national conference as well as city, state or bioregional conferences or gatherings are a proven means to doing this. There's nothing quite like personal contact to get to know each other, something that is supplemented by online media.

What such gatherings — I like that word better because 'conferences' can bring to mind those boring, sit-on-seats-in-rows events we've all been subjected to — need some purpose like the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance had for its Food Summit a few years ago, when the conference took its Declaration On Food the NSW Parliament.

So… a butterfly. A flying creature those independently-controlled wings enable it to hover, wait and watch but that also allow it to dart forward to some new site of opportunity. So, how do we build our own dragonfly of a social movement?

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